It wasn't the incessant rains in Sydney that kept India away from practice on Thursday. Through to the finals of the tri-series and fortunate to have four days between their last league fixture on Tuesday and the first finals at the SCG on Sunday, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men welcomed the opportunity to rest aching limbs and tired minds.

It has been an Australian summer of great drama and hectic activity. The competition has been intense, but non-cricketing issues too have played their part in mentally draining the protagonists. This series has perhaps ensured that Indo-Aussie cricketing relations will never be normal again; against this backdrop, optimum use must be made of every opportunity to take a little time away from practice and match-play.

More than the batsmen, it's the bowlers that need recovery and recuperation time. It's not to say that batsmen don't put in the same mental effort — after all, it takes just one delivery to get a batsman out — but the physical demands on the bowlers, and especially the quicker bowlers, are extraordinarily more than they are on the batsmen.

Impressive  Ishant

No one has toiled harder than Ishant Sharma, still only 19 but so obviously growing as a bowler and a cricketer with almost every successive outing. The beanpole from Delhi came on this tour as a promising young talent, looking for the odd chance to further his development; in the matter of a few weeks, he has gone from an investment for the future to the spearhead of the present attack, a status that owes itself as much to injuries to left-arm pacers Zaheer Khan and Rudra Pratap Singh as to the giant strides taken by Ishant himself.

The workload he has had to shoulder has been astonishing — 101 overs in three Tests, 15 in the practice game against ACT Invitational XI, and 54.1 high-intensity overs in the tri-series thus far. Ishant isn't the biggest of men, his body mass not proportionate to his height. It won't be long before he starts to fill out; much like his bowling, his body too isn't a finished product yet. That's precisely why he has continued to astound.

Throughout the summer, the more he has bowled, the faster and better he has got. He had showcased extraordinary stamina by bowling lengthy 10 and 11-over spells during the Test series, even in searing heat; the one-day game doesn't necessitate him to bowl such long spells, but every time his captain has turned to him, Ishant has responded admirably.

Competent attack

At some stage during the tri-series, Ishant could perhaps have got a game off. After all, India still have a fairly competent quick bowling attack, and it would have been in Ishant as well as India's interests for the young lad to put his feet up for a few days. The bustle of one-day cricket takes more out of the body than the relatively stately pace of Test matches. Ishant is only 19 and in his first full season of international cricket; even so, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is aware of the pitfalls of pushing his young quick too hard. “We will have our complete set of fast bowlers to pick from when Zaheer Khan and RP Singh are back from their injuries,” the Indian skipper said.

“Ishant has had a long summer, and he needs rest at some stage. When we have all our pace bowlers available, we can rotate them and keep them all fresh.

“You have to be very careful with the careers of the fast bowlers,” Dhoni continued. “You can't just use them as disposable items. You have to give them rest in between so that they can serve Indian cricket for a long time, and that's very important.” There isn't too much time, really. Less than three weeks after they return home, India will engage South Africa in a three-match series. Then, it's IPL time. Followed by the Asia Cup. And a tour of Sri Lanka. And... Get the picture? Managing assets will be the key, especially given India have the luxury of a talented large pool to pick from.